Honda’s six fold rise in quarterly from last year announced this morning, is helped by the sales of greener cars and cost cutting measures it is revealed.
The carmaker today raised its full-year profit forecast for a third time after the results for the final quarter of 2009 were revealed. Compared to the last quarter of 2008, Honda made 135bn yen (around £930m) from the previous year. Sales may have been down 11.5 per cent on the same period of 2008, but this is blamed on a strong yen and an overall downturn in car sales across the world.
However, successful sales were boosted by government subsidies such as scrappage schemes and tax breaks on more fuel-efficient cars which helped boost sales of Honda’s Civic and the new to 2009- hybrid Insight.
While the brand is in the middle of a recall crisis affecting its popular Jazz model, the carmaker could be set to capitalise on Japanese rival, Toyota, which has also issued its own, more extensive recalls.
Honda has issued a global recall of 646,000 cars to fix a defect with a window switch which could cause fire in the Jazz model, also known as Fit in some countries. Meanwhile Toyota has issued a recall affecting eight models sold in Europe which could mean as many as 1.8 million on this one continent alone might need repair.
The firm now expects its full year net income of 265bn yen, well above initial expectations.
